Keyboard Kimura: How the UFC should change in 2017

CLEVELAND, OH - SEPTEMBER 10: A general view during the UFC 203 event at Quicken Loans Arena on September 10, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images)

With a ton of changes already taking place and appearing on the horizon, E. Spencer Kyte offers up some ideas on other changes the UFC could make in the coming year.

The winds of change have swept through the UFC over the last several months, leaving everyone guessing if the upheaval that has hit the business side of the organization will carry over to the product the company produces in 2017.

Will there be fewer events? Will the roster get slashed? Will more fighters look toward free agency and choose to no longer compete inside the Octagon?

These are all major questions hovering overhead as 2016 winds down and instead of just taking a “wait and see how it all shakes out” approach, here are my thoughts on some of the changes the new UFC owners should make heading into next year.

Cut Down the Main Roster

The UFC website lists 650 fighters on its roster. If you take away the various retired or released competitors from each division (Stephan Bonnar, Matt Hughes, Angela Hill), you’re probably looking at somewhere in the neighbourhood of 600 fighters that are still under contracts and could, in theory, step into the Octagon in 2017.

If I’m being honest, the UFC could probably stand to purge a good 200 names or so from that list – it would begin to make “being a UFC fighter” actually mean something again, present fewer names for fans to remember on a month-to-month basis and probably make it easier for Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard to do their jobs as matchmakers because having too many options can sometimes be a bad thing.

There are some division that would likely get spared or only see a handful of fighters dropped simply because they’re not as deep as others, but for the most part, I think anyone that spends their Saturdays watching UFC content can recognize that there are too many fighters that just aren’t quite ready for prime time holding down a place on the roster and taking up spots on fight cards.

But I don’t think they should all be handed a pink slip and told to kick rocks either…

Establish an Official Minor League Organization

Every year that passes without the UFC actually doing this, the more confused I get because doing something like this just makes too much sense to me, especially now in the Fight Pass era where the organization could find a permanent host site somewhere in Vegas and broadcast all the events on Fight Pass.

Given its relatively low ratings across the board, FS1 would probably even be down to broadcast some of the shows if the UFC were inclined to let that happen.

There are countless examples of why this would be an effective move, with the most obvious corollary being NXT, World Wrestling Entertainment’s developmental organization, which has graduated the likes of Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose Bray Wyatt and Kevin Owens to the main roster since its launch.

As far as an MMA-specific example, Strikeforce laid out the blueprint with its Challengers series, which saw standouts like Tyron Woodley, Luke Rockhold and Ronda Rousey all pass through at one point or another. Like NXT, it was a vehicle for showcasing emerging talents to the audience so that once they were ready to move up to the big show, they already had a following and people were familiar with them.

Rather than having emerging talents with obvious upside languishing in the middle of non-descript Fight Night shows across the globe, provide them with a greater opportunity to flourish and potentially connect with the audience by having them headline these minor league events. While they could be doing that on the regional circuit, the difference is that the UFC name carries much greater value and is going to draw more interest than allowing all these unproven talents to ply their trade and hone their skills in the alphabet soup of regional shows around the world.

Plus, the UFC can pay them a little more and if it wants to see the sport grow and flourish, that’s something the organization should consider doing at all levels. In fact…

Pay the Athletes More

Listen, I know that rich people don’t really like spending money where they don’t necessarily have to, but to me, this is all about investing in the product that WME & Co. just spent $4.2B to acquire.

If you think early weigh-ins have improved performance (and they have), imagine what these men and women having a little more money in the bank to pay for coaches and nutritionists and not having to have side jobs would do.

Whether it comes in the form of annual salaries (which brings a lot of other issues to tackle) or simply increasing payouts across the board (say $25,000 and $25,000 to start?), the quality of the UFC product will increase if the company makes some investments in the talent themselves and if the product improves, there is a strong likelihood that ratings and revenues will follow suit.

Invest in Invicta FC Too

In addition to establishing “UFC NXT” and paying everyone more, the company should make an actual financial commitment to Invicta FC as well, since the next generation of women to compete on the UFC roster are just as likely to come from the Shannon Knapp-helmed organization as anywhere else.

While Invicta FC events already stream on Fight Pass, it would be great to see interviews with the headliners on the UFC website or video packages with some of the bigger names on the card in advance of each event.

I’m pumped about Alexa Grasso’s debut in a couple weeks because I’ve been watching her compete in Invicta for the last two years, but most UFC fans probably don’t know her. One way to change that is to showcase the all-women’s organization and its stars a little more on UFC platforms.

Fewer Events

I’m not suggesting cutting the schedule in half or anything, but each of the last two years, there have been 40 events and even though that represents a decrease from the 45 that took place in 2014, it still feels like a couple too many.

Having 36 events has always felt like the right number to me, broken down as follows:

12 PPV
4 Big FOX cards
20 Fight Night events

Ideally, I’d love to see 28 shows – 12 PPV, 12 Fight Nights, 4 FOX cards – with one PPV and UFN event per month and one FOX card per quarter, but I know that’s unrealistic at this time. The UFC isn’t just going to lop 12 events off the schedule, so pulling one PPV and a handful of Fight Night cards heading into next year marks a solid starting point.

The key, above everything else, is to find a balance when building these cards – making sure that every card is worth watching instead of having the handful of events that end up being afterthoughts each year. Things have been mostly good this year, but trimming the roster should help improve that event more.

FOX cards need to be about serious contenders and emerging stars, with a title fight mixed in if you’re feeling generous. And honestly, double up on them, like what is happening with both Paige VanZant and Sage Northcutt fight on the Sacramento FOX card at the end of the year. Both have been on the network in the past and aren’t ready to be major pay-per-view players, so get them in front of the biggest audience possible and let the fans continue seeing them grow and develop.

Fight Night cards should be like the event in Hidalgo, Texas or the South Dakota show in July – recognizable names that are still a win or two away from contention, one or two veteran clashes and then filled out with prospects, rebuilding names and newcomers.

Keep the pay-per-views for the cream of the crop. Do two championship bouts as often as possible, skipping out in the instances where the champion is a big enough draw on their own (read: Conor McGregor) so you’re not “wasting” a title bout. Get No. 1 contender fights from the same divisions as the championship headliners on the main card to build to the next title fight, add in a prospect in need of a stern test and a couple “this should be fun” fights (read: Lauzon-Miller-esque) and you’re golden.

Conclusion

Even though the last few months have been volatile outside of the cage, the action in the Octagon this year has mostly been strong and it looks like it should continue going forward, as several divisions are deep and flourishing and the others (read: light heavyweight) still feature some quality talents that fans want to see compete on a regular basis.

People often think I’m crazy when I say this, but I’ve always believed there would be a second boom period for this sport – one that rivals the growth and ascent the sport enjoyed after TUF 1 and into the Brock Lesnar era – and it feels like we’re in the early stages of it right now, though it could go either way.

Serious issues that are coming up beyond the cage will certainly have an impact, but in terms of talent and the performances being delivered most nights, things have never been better and there are still places to make improvements, so 2017 should be very interesting.

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